Bridge Today

The club rooms are past 25 years old. (New Building 1991)

​Committees over the years have worked hard to maintain and enhance the building.

​Recently the air conditioning and heating system has been upgraded.

​The game is the same but technology has arrived - no more manual scoring

• ​Dealing is now machine dealt, which prepares the boards for each session.
• At the beginning of 2012 the club moved to electronic scoring. Bridge Scorers were purchased from BridgeNZ. These originated in Sweden and use touch screen technology. Taupo Bridge Club was the first New Zealand club to use these. A laptop was purchased and now the Scoring control software is run from that laptop. Results are now sent with a click of a button (XML button) to BridgeNZ which hosts our results. These are available within minutes of the end of play. Players can pick up these results on line when they get  home. (or on a smart phone as they drive home)
• Results also go to X Club and backups are stored in the cloud.
• A television set is used by directors to display a round timer and show results when needed.
• An over head projection unit is used as above if needed but very useful for bridge lesson sessions

Technology continues to evolve. All sessions  are now using an android tablet as the table scoring unit. These are called Bridge Tabs. They work seamlessly with our existing  scoring system. They have the advantage of besides being touch screen, the larger colorful display is easy for all players to read. What are Bridge Tabs? Check the video

2018 will start with 24  Bridge Tab units. 

2020  The year of covid. This was the time the club went contactless. Scan cards were introduced and members were sent Statements each month. Generally members were asked to keep there table money account in credit and top up as necessary. This resulted in a considerable amount of time saving for directors and treasurer as they no longer had to handle cast.

2021 Covid still around but fortunately bridge has only had a little disruption this year. After 9 months of using scan cards the club now no longer requires there use. With the help of BridgeNZ ( Scorer software ) we developed a template that displays monthly player session data, captured from members putting their bridge number into the tablets. This still interfaces with the software from the previous year and statements are quickly generated each month.

2023 Club rooms have a new paint

​Major renovations May 2024

​In 2023, the Committee successfully raised funds through a variety of initiatives to repaint the exterior of the clubrooms and upgrade the bathroom facilities.
During this process, it was also recognised that the office would be better situated off the main clubroom. With renovations already planned, members were asked to consider relocating the office. At a Special Meeting, it was agreed that the office be moved to the space previously occupied by the Men’s and Accessible bathrooms, with those facilities in turn relocated to the area where the office and cloakroom had been.
This change required additional funding. Members enthusiastically supported the effort, selling plaques to help raise the extra money required, with the balance secured through further grant applications. We are deeply grateful to NZCT, Pub Charities, Lions Foundation, and Grassroots for their generous support of this project.
The exterior repainting was completed in 2023, followed by renovations in May 2024. The results are outstanding: modern, high-quality bathroom facilities and a spacious new office conveniently located off the main clubroom.
Sincere thanks go to the Committee, members, and all who supported this project and helped bring it to fruition. A special acknowledgment is extended to David Righton and Martin Jones for their invaluable contributions in making the electrical wiring, lighting, and related work so cost-effective.

And a newly painted roof